1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water purifier for sterilizing and filtering potable city water flowing out of a tap or faucet, and more particularly to a water purifier provided with an ozone generating device for sterilizing the water, and a water purifying filter for removing impurities and odor from the water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, known water purifiers will be classified into various types. Among the types of water purifiers are the gravity flow type of purifier and the pressurized type of purifier which is connected directly to a pressurized feed line.
The natural flow type of water purifier generally comprises an upper container provided with a water purifying filter and a lower container for storing the filtered water. The upper container is manually supplied with water. The water supplied into the upper container flows to the lower container by way of the water purifying filter by which the water is naturally filtered of impurities and odor. Thereafter, the filtered water is stored in the lower container for use as needed.
On the other hand, the pressurized type of water purifier, which is directly connected to the tap, can purify city water by means of a water purifying filter and directly supply the purified water under pressure through an outlet port such as a facet.
The above-mentioned known water purifiers each only filters the water of the impurities and odor by means of a water purifying filter such as activated carbon.
On the other hand, there is another type of water purifier which provides ozone for the city water in order to sterilize it.
One such water purifier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,426 published on Jan. 24, 1984 and entitled "Ozonizer System". The water purifier disclosed in the U.S. patent comprises at least one, preferably two or more, ozone generating units each having an inner, rod-like electrode and an outer tubular electrode and a glass tube carrying the outer electrode, and end plates formed with sockets. Each inner electrode is seated in a pair of sockets with its ends abutting the closed ends of the sockets and clamped thereto by screws. The glass tube has its ends abutting shoulders in the sockets. There is provided a drier adapted for drying the air to be ozonized.
In operation of this type of water purifier, hot air is periodically passed through the drier to dry the desiccant material, and ambient air is drawn through the drier by a Venturi device which also serves to mix ozonized air with the water to be purified, thereby providing ozonized and purified water. However, this type of system has disadvantages in that it is a relatively complicated structure requiring many elements, and the periodical supplying of hot air. In addition, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho. 63-149,298 published on Sep. 30, 1988 and entitled "A City Water Purifying Apparatus" disclosed another type of water purifier. This type of water purifier comprises an ozone generating device including a tap for draining out city water therethrough, a water-jet pump mounted to the tap and actuated by the pressure of the city water, an air inlet port, an ozone outlet port and a high voltage power generator; a conduit adapted for connecting the ozone outlet port of the ozone generating device to the water-jet pump, and a water flow sensor adapted for sensing the water flow at said tap in order to actuate the ozone generating device when it senses water flow. However, this type of water purifier has the disadvantage that the generated ozone only contacts the water for a relatively short time so that there is little time to efficiently ozonize the water. Furthermore, this water purifier can not sufficiently filter the city water of impurities and odor.